An Unfair Advantage
by I'maFrakkingViperJockey
Summary: An attack on the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki in the middle of the night leads to startling revelations, and secrets are revealed that might have been better off kept secret. Mainly a project to improve my writing, pretty average storyline. SasuNaru, yaoi, yuri.
1. Chapter 1

**An Unfair Advantage.**

**By Azarni-chan.**

**Rated: M **

**Warnings: Adult concepts, yaoi, yuri and a lot of language.**

**Disclaimer: Naruto is copyright Kishimoto Masashi. I do not make any profit from the making of this fan fiction. **

Chapter One.

The sky was hauntingly dark, its mysterious shadows cloaking the streets and alleys of the village akin to a mother tucking her child into bed, whispering sweet fables of fairies and magical creatures that came to whisk away little boys and girls to a magical place full of wonder.

There was a small sun, however, roaming the village, refusing to succumb to the opacity of the night. Its rays shone brightly, yet the shadows clung to it persistently, claiming it as a thing of darkness, of anger.

The villagers despaired of this small, stubborn sun, and the dark rays of light that it occasionally shone forth in place of its normal near-blinding ones. The sun seemed to be discontent, its gloom occupying a space tightly wound around its form, its frustration and anger flicking out occasionally to startle a small animal with its ferocious intensity.

Konohagakure no Sato lamented the times when its small sun was not present to omit its gloom on the village. The only improvement was that most of its inhabitants were abed, unaware of the phenomenon that was transpiring outside their windows.

Uzumaki Naruto was throwing a tantrum.

--

Why did nothing ever go his way? Why must it be him who bore the full brunt of every attack, every snide remark and barely concealed glare? Why him that had to mask his emotions lest they turn into something lethal? Why did this have to happen?

Why did Uchiha Sasuke have to surpass him in every possible way?

"I can't _believe_ that that stupid, idiotic, pansy-assed sissy is taller than me! What's he thinking, huh? That if he's taller than poor little Naruto that he wins?! No way!"

How dare he think that anyway? Uchiha Sasuke was nothing but a show-off, parade-around show-pony. What was he thinking, belittling Naruto the way he did, _smirking _at his gained height, his gained advantage, _slyly _raising an eyebrow to insult Naruto's newly-underlined shortness?

Did he think he was some kind of royalty?

It didn't matter that the smirk came after Naruto tripped over himself due to his flustered anger, or that the raised-eyebrow was in response to a badly-formed insult describing how the outfit Sasuke had worn whilst with Orochimaru had been "So stupidly stupid that I could've ripped the stupid thing off your stupid body in three bloody seconds flat if you hadn't been waving that stupid knife around like a stupid maniac!"

It also didn't matter that said "knife" was actually a very well-made, very _sharp _samurai sword, or that said knife had almost sliced Naruto's head off on quite a few occasions.

Naruto was _furious. _

And storming through Konoha at nearly eleven at night, he was pretty damned riled up, that it was that he didn't notice the three burly village-men walking his way, bottles in hand.

"What the hell makes that moron better than me, anyway?" He scowled, kicking an empty bottle to the side as he stormed on through the dark streets towards his small home.

Sasuke just _had _to exceed him in every way possible. First, all aspects of training, then with the girls, then with intellect and snide remarks, which Naruto seemed to have a severe lack of, then all the teachers seemed to like him better. Now, the icing on the cake, he was _taller _than him.

Naruto could swear that he did it on purpose, that he got some kind of twisted pleasure out of it.

A loud noise startled him out of his anger-fuelled reverie, and he hurriedly turned around, immediately in guard position.

In front of him stood three large, obviously very drunk villagers, toting large, nearly-empty bottles of sake and very angry expressions.

Directed at him.

Naruto blanched, and immediately fell out of guard position, taking a few steps back. The blonde knew all too well the laws set primarily regarding him, stating he wasn't allowed to raise fist, chakra, weapon or claw (if the case arose) against any villager, for any reason. Even to protect himself.

The risk, apparently, was too high to allow the demon to kill half the villagers on a whim. The real reason, Naruto was sure, was that they just wanted legal freedom to "punish" him for his crimes.

The council was unable to curb shinobi's actions to harm Naruto, so they gave the villagers freedom instead.

Somehow, that was worse. Naruto knew how to deal with nin. When reasoned with properly, which was the only weapon in his arsenal he was free to use in situations such as this, shinobi tended to calm down a lot faster than the average person.

When faced with the average person, however, Naruto had nothing up his sleeve except escaping.

And more often than not, he couldn't run fast enough. Without the boost of chakra, which had been used to persecute him on a previous occasion, Naruto was about as fast as a ten year old when it came to running.

He had a large portion of stamina on his side, but no amount of endurance could save him from someone that was faster. Someone that could catch him.

And these men could easily catch him, Naruto reasoned, quickly scanning them to gauge the level of the threat. The bottles could be weapons, he noted, but the men weren't so drunk that they would throw away good sake.

Besides, those fists alone looked like they could crush him, shinobi training or not. He was pretty sure that fists that big, and fuelled by the inconceivable, drunken anger he now was witnessing, could probably crush even prissy, steel-headed Sasuke.

Every step Naruto took back, the three men took forward, and soon Naruto was almost stumbling over himself as he tried to navigate a path through the village back to his apartment, to anywhere, whilst walking backwards to keep an eye on his attackers.

He couldn't afford to stumble. He couldn't even afford to pause momentarily to get his bearings. Every millisecond was now precious. The quicker Naruto could make it to a safe place, the quicker he could barricade his door against them. That was his only hope. Without physical self defence granted him, his apartment door, already imbued with countless seals and protection jutsu by the Sandaime, was his only hope.

Against these men, due to the law, Naruto was no better than a small child when it came to defence. They would rip him apart like a rag doll.

By no means had this never happened before. Naruto had been on the receiving end of many a beating, but had managed to avoid most of them due to carefully keeping away from the streets at night time, when there was no one to help him, or to even _see. _

And tonight, he'd forsaken that sacred rule he'd made so long ago, and all because of _Sasuke. _Why did everything have to come back to him? He was sure that if Sasuke were here right now, he'd smirk at him and then laugh at his helplessness.

Naruto regretted taking up his dark-haired rival's proposal for late training. And now his sparring partner was back home in his mansion, living it up, while Naruto was here, in a back alley of Konoha's slums (where his apartment was located), trembling and backing away from a very big, very real threat, with no means of protecting himself against any attack, be it verbal, physical or sexual.

Gasping, Naruto realised that he'd lost track of where he was backing up to and had hit a wall, the men advancing on him with devious sneers.

"We've got you now, bakemono!" One of them scoffed.

_Oh gods. _Naruto thought, panicking, _What do I do?_

It was too late to run, and he wasn't even given leeway to drop to defence position. And being a village where ninja were prominent, even these drunken louts would recognise martial arts, then he'd be in _deep _shit.

Naruto gulped, his eyes frantically searching the vicinity for any means of escape. There were none.

"Let's have a little fun, demon."

_Shit. _

The last time someone had said that to him, he'd lost a lot more than blood.

Eyes wide and panicking, Naruto braced his hands on the wall behind him, completely unprepared but ready at least to drop down and curl in on himself at the first sign of an attack.

That was the only advantage he had from being a shinobi.

Everything else, down to the level of his suffering, was up to his attackers. Naruto had learned the hard way to not cry out for mercy. If you cried out, it was only in pain, and only to placate the attacker so that the beating might end prematurely. It often didn't have any effect, but it was better than asking for it by begging for them to stop.

That only made things worse. Far worse.

And judging by that last comment, this was going to be one of the worse beatings. Not just a beating, this promised to be a _pounding._

Biting his lip, Naruto readied himself to drop to a foetal position, his heart hammering in his chest as if it were trying to seek a way out, his breathing heavy and sharp in his panic.

As the men advanced ominously towards him, knowing their prey was trapped, Naruto tried not to let his tears of fright fall, lest they see and punish him all the more for it. It was bad enough that he was shaking like a leaf, obvious for all to see.

When a ninja had nothing left but his hands, and when he couldn't even use those, there was nothing left for him but despair and defeat. And when a ninja was defeated, there was nothing left but to surrender to being conquered. For a conquered ninja, after all, was no good to anyone.

And Naruto needed to be _something _for _someone. _Anyone.

But his options were no better than facing defeat, and he didn't think his psyche would be able to handle that again. Not after the Valley of the End. That defeat had left him weak and frail inside for years, and he'd only just begun to heal that hurt.

No, there were no options for a defeated shinobi.

And Naruto didn't dare to hope.

Analysing the situation in a detached area of his brain, he realised that with three of them, he had a very good chance of sustaining injuries that wouldn't be able to be healed by Kyuubi. Or maybe even Tsunade.

Which meant that he'd have to heal in normal time. And he couldn't afford to be injured for an continuous amount of time; not with the Akatsuki still doggedly pursuing him.

The non analytical part of his mind, however, was a completely different matter.

_Ohcrapohcrapohcrapohcrapohcrap!_

Naruto squeezed his eyes tightly shut and instinctively threw his arms above his head as the first blow swung down, the leering face behind it displaying a cruel mirth at his trembling, terrified form.

"Stop."

Naruto's breath hitched. The swinging arm stopped, the clenched fist centimetres from Naruto's poorly protected head and shuddering arms.

The men looked up above Naruto's head, to the roof of the building he was backed up against. Turning slightly, not taking his eyes off the now cautious men, Naruto couldn't see his defender; could hardly believe that anyone was defending him.

Whenever someone witnessed him being beaten, they either looked away or joined in. No one had ever defended him except Iruka, and he was out on a mission in Kirigakure.

So who…?

"Stop." His protector repeated dangerously.

There was a growl in his voice that made Naruto gasp. He would recognise that anger anywhere. It was usually directed at him, though the tone was not this incensed.

_Sa-Sasuke?_


	2. Chapter 2

**An Unfair Advantage.**

**By I'mAFrakkingViperJockey.**

**Rated: M **

**Warnings: Adult concepts, yaoi, yuri and a lot of language.**

**Disclaimer: Naruto is copyright Kishimoto Masashi. I do not make any profit from the making of this fan fiction. **

Naruto was completely stunned. The voice he had just heard was barely conceivable. Sasuke was at home and eating ongiri, not standing on the roof above him, protecting him from three large assailants.

"Leave us 'lone, kid," one of the men interrupted Naruto's quickly scattering thoughts, "this's the ky- kyu…dem'n brat. Dun you know when ta leave 'lone?"

He was met with silence.

"See, look at 'im. 'E's shakin like a leaf!" he guffawed at his poorly delivered pun, "We's doin a good thing 'ere, kid. Let us ave our fun." He stepped towards a quaking Naruto, only to be distracted as the sound of metal being drawn originated from the silhouette.

Naruto quickly tried to seek a way out while they were distracted, Sasuke or not; because it was more likely that it wasn't Sasuke standing on the roof above him. Why would the stoic boy be here when he had so clearly gone in the opposite direction of Naruto when they parted, headed for home?

It was a ridiculous notion. Naruto would just have to take the distraction before the person realised who- _what _– he was, and decided to have in on "the fun". A real weapon now having been brought into the equation, he had no choice but to run.

Side stepping hesitantly along the wall to his left, Naruto tried to avoid notice while the three men looked up at the interruption the stranger was providing.

He nearly screamed when the intruder jumped down, placing a hand on his shoulder. He managed a barely-dignified yelp instead, and braced himself for the pain of metal on his flesh.

He only hoped that the Kyuubi would be able to heal him enough in time for him to get to the hospital. If he could walk.

"Stay away from him, or I will kill you." The intruder inflected softly, dangerously, "Don't think that I will not."

Naruto's eyes went comically wide. That voice… But it couldn't be Sasuke. Could it? Suppose the raven-haired boy had doubled back after leaving Naruto… but why would he do that?

One thing was for certain; he had to be sure.

Turning his head slightly, his eyes came in contact with whirling pools of enraged crimson.

"S-Sasuke?" Naruto whispered incredulously, his voice breaking slightly due to shock.

Blazing Sharingan stared back at him, the moon glinting on a samurai sword poised in the direction of the three drunk men who were staring at the scene unfolding, unsure of what to do.

"Hn."

Then he was gone.

Naruto had only a moment to wonder if he had been hallucinating, if he was actually about to be attacked, when a shadow appeared behind the men, a blurry rod of silver whirring around them.

The men's screams followed.

Naruto realised with no little shock that it was indeed Sasuke who had come to his rescue; who had just slit his attacker's throats without mercy or warning.

Sasuke appeared in front of him again in a silent swirling of wind and leaves, his back – tensed in anger – turned to the quaking blonde behind him.

The Jinchuuriki realised, in that moment, that the three attackers were still standing. Lines of red graced their throats, indeed, but they were still alive. Then he realised that the silent figure of his rival in front of him was talking.

"Consider that your first, and only, warning." His tone was soft and cold, the hardness of it allowing for no forgiveness, "If any of you, or anyone, touches Uzumaki Naruto again, they will die. Then their families will die. Then their houses will burn. Nothing will be left."

Naruto stared at his friend in slight fear as he noted that Sasuke was deadly serious. If anyone touched Naruto again, Sasuke would not hesitate to burn them and their families alive.

The scariest part was that Sasuke would do that for him.

To protect him.

The men were drunkenly stumbling away, their terrified steps echoing on the walls of the streets.

Sasuke waited a moment after they had left their sight and hearing before turning to face the trembling blonde behind him.

"I never thought," he said quietly, his eyes shadowed, "that you would be afraid of anyone, Naruto, let alone a few stupidly drunk villagers. I never would have guessed that you would need rescuing."

"I-I…" Naruto found himself at a loss for words, the shock of what had just happened, at what had _nearly _happened before it, still having its effect on him.

Sasuke took a step forward, and Naruto jumped, his breath catching.

The Uchiha stopped, a frown marring his face, "You are afraid of me?" he asked softly, slightly annoyed and confused, "Naruto. Since when have you been afraid of anything?"

Naruto gulped, "I-I'm… Why did you rescue me?"

Sasuke scowled, "What, you think I was going to leave you to be attacked by some idiots?"

"N-no, I…" he took a step backwards, trying to get his bearings and regain his composure, "I just…though you'd gone home."

"Hn. Why does it matter? I saved you. Why did you need saving, anyway, dobe? Last time I checked, you were capable of protecting yourself just fine, even against some villagers."

Naruto scowled at the backhanded complement, momentarily ignoring the question as the familiarity of their bickering aided him to his normal bearings.

"I didn't need saving." He lied stubbornly after a moment of silence.

Sasuke stepped closer so Naruto could see his face under the moonlight and raised an eyebrow, "You didn't need saving? Those brutes were about to set on you, and you weren't doing anything but trembling like a small child who's lost its mother."

"I couldn't do anything, okay?!" Naruto snapped, desperate to escape, to just go home and sleep and forget this whole god damned stupid thing. Then snapped his mouth shut out of alarm, a wary expression crossing his face.

_That was close, _he thought. He almost gave everything away, there.

Then he'd be in far more shit than if a few thugs bashed him and had their 'fun' with him. He could heal from bruises and internal bleeding, but not from breaking the law.

Sasuke frowned. He wouldn't ordinarily have thought anything of that comment except for the expression that crossed Naruto's face after he said it.

The blonde was hiding something.

"What do you mean," the older boy asked slowly, "you 'couldn't do anything'? You're a fucking ninja, dobe!"

Naruto gulped again.

"I… I can't tell you anything, Sasuke."

The long silence that followed this comment was broken only by the sound of Sasuke sheathing his sword, the rather upset Naruto averting his gaze and trying to find his way out of a situation that was somehow worse than being cornered by drunk, angry villagers.

In that situation, Naruto was blocked from using anything he had up his sleeve. Here, he had only his brain. His ninja skills weren't forbidden to use on Sasuke, but they would do no good. And his brain was behaving rather like a dog that had rabies; it wasn't.

He didn't know what to do, what to think, what to say.

He just wanted to sleep. To give up and tell Sasuke everything, to tell him _anything._

Because any way he looked at it, he needed his friend. He needed Sasuke, and he was sick of hiding everything from him.

"What?"

"I said," Naruto repeated tiredly, "that I'm sick of hiding everything from you. I'm so tired, Sasuke."

"Yet you can't tell me anything. You can't do anything against some thugs. You cant protect yourself, and now you can't even think. What the fuck is going on?"

"This has been going on a long time, Sasuke." That was all he could give him. Any more and he was as good as dead.

"How long?" Sasuke asked, knowing that there was something here that wasn't being said. A big something, guessing by the way Naruto was acting. He was nothing like his normal self.

"I…I can't say."

"Really." Then Sasuke was gone again.

Naruto gasped as cold steel touched his throat, a strong arm wrapping around him, pinning his arms to his body.

"Now," Sasuke whispered into his ear, his chest pressing against Naruto's back, the sword resting uncomfortably against the blonde's throat, "What is this, and how long has it been happening?"

"Sasuke, I-I can't-"

"You will tell me or I will make you."

He was telling the truth. Naruto had no choice.

"Fuck the consequences." Naruto whispered, his face betraying his conflicting thoughts, "Fuck them all."

Sasuke remained silent, waiting.

"I…I've never told this to anyone, Sasuke."

"Just say it."

"Teme."

"Hn."

"It's the law." Naruto whispered, finally revealing something that had weighed him down for his entire life. Sasuke listened, silent.

"The law," Naruto continued, ignoring the sword against his throat as it moved away, as it was again sheathed, "states that no one is allowed to talk about this. About anything to do with the Kyuubi. To do with me."

The Uchiha let Naruto go, coming to stand in front of him, his face betraying nothing. But Naruto, who knew him better than anyone, could see the faint traces of anger crossing his face.

"There are many laws that concern me." He went on, swallowing a lump of fear, and averting his eyes from Sasuke's pools of now deep-black, "I'm not allowed to defend myself. At all. I can't use weapons, chakra, my fists, or claws," he scoffed bitterly at that last, "against any villager. Even to defend myself. Especially to defend myself."

Momentarily scanning Sasuke's face, which now showed incredible anger and slight shock, Naruto returned to his bitter tale, "The-the last time I was attacked was f-five years ago. A year before you left. I was beaten up pretty bad, and…well."

"And what?" the question was sharp. Sasuke was pissed. And he knew that if Naruto said "and", it usually led to something else.

"And…they raped me."

"What?!" Sasuke snarled, unconsciously falling into an offensive position.

"Look, Sasuke," Naruto interjected quickly, "don't worry about that, okay? It-it happens…"

"It _happens?_" Sasuke's voice was purely venom, "Are you implying that you are beaten and raped on a regular basis?"

"N-not regular…"

Sasuke looked about ready to unleash the chidori, and indeed Naruto could faintly hear the sound of birds in the background.

"Sasuke," he interrupted, stepping forward and putting his hand on the Uchiha's arm, "Don't worry about it. Seriously. That's not important, okay? The point is, me being attacked by the villagers isn't legal, but…it happens, and okay, it happens a lot. _But_ there's nothing I can do about it. There's nothing _you _can do about it either. They aren't prosecuted, _I _am. So just drop it, alright? I've told you, I've trusted you, now you have to trust me."

Another long silence followed his rushed words.

"So," Sasuke said slowly after carefully scrutinizing his team mates' expression, which displayed determination and utmost sincerity; an expression only to be found on the little blonde in front of him, "you're telling me that not only can't you, or I do anything about it, but that we have to _let _this shit happen?"

"Why are you so protective of me, Sasuke?" Naruto bit his lower lip and looked up into dark, brooding eyes, "This is _my _battle, not yours. I… I don't understand why you're so upset, or why you want to stop it so much."

A growl.

"I want to protect you, you idiot, because I care about you!"

Naruto gaped. _? He… cares about me?_

Sasuke clamped his mouth shut, cursing the element in the night that was seemingly causing this flow of words that they would both rather stop.

"What?" slightly startled by the fact that he'd missed what the idiot had just said, but not willing to show it, Sasuke subtly looked askance at Naruto, who was now looking at his feet, "What did you say?"

"I said," Naruto began, before mumbling to his feet so softly that Sasuke couldn't make out anything but the blush on the blonde's cheeks.

"Naruto," he began dangerously, "what did you say? If you have something to say, dobe, I expect you to say it audibly."

"I… I care about you, too." The words were almost a whisper, "Teme." He added for effect.

Sasuke froze. Well, he certainly wasn't expecting _that._ This night was definitely turning out to be ridiculous. First, he's _escorted_ Naruto home, even if the blonde didn't realise, then he'd rescued him from a bad beating and rape from some stupid drunks, now they were standing in a dark alley mumbling almost incoherently about their _feelings, _of all things.

Naruto cleared his throat, looking anywhere but the faintly-blushing older ninja who suddenly seemed at once too close, not close enough, "I'd better get home."

"Hn."

"Hey, Sasuke."

"Hn?"

"Why…You were following me home, weren't you?" he laced his fingers together nervously, and forced his eyes up to meet Sasuke's, "That's why you could rescue me before. Because you didn't go home."

Silence.

"Sasuke, I seriously am not going to leave until you answer me."

"Good night, dobe."

"Sasuke."

"Hn."

"Sasu-"

"Fine!" the black-haired boy huffed in annoyance as he was met with a very blue glare, "I was following you. Big deal, who cares. Good night."

As he turned to go, he failed to notice an unimpressed expression cross Naruto's face. He also failed to notice his team-mates' arm moved until his own arm was caught in a vice like grip by a small hand.

"It _is_ a big deal." Naruto said softly, determination causing his eyes to darken a few shades, "And _I_ care. Sasuke, I need to know _why, _and you're going to tell me. Now."

"Oh yeah? And what're you going to do to me, huh?"

"You seem to be forgetting, teme, that I trained with one of the Sannin for three years, as well." As Sasuke turned slightly to look at his team mate, he could clearly make out the large grin on the idiot's face, "I have more than a few tricks up my sleeve that you don't know about."

"Hn."

The grin widened.

The Uchiha's eyes narrowed, "Get off." He pulled his arm free, and couldn't help but begrudgingly think that he'd only been able to pull it free because the bloody idiot _let _him. "I don't give a shit what you have up your sleeve."

The unwavering grin did nothing to bolster his failing confidence. Even an idiot - like Naruto – would be able to deduce that someone who'd spent three years with Jiraiya had obviously learnt _something. _A lot of somethings. He himself had learned quite a few underhanded tricks from Orochimaru before he'd murdered the pervert.

He was actually rather surprised and a little annoyed at how Naruto could _grin _at a time like this. He'd just confessed to being attacked on a regular basis, and he was _smiling. _What was with the blonde twit anyway? Sasuke would give an arm and a leg to be able to smile at what his brother had done.

Or rather, to smile while he ripped his throat out with his bare hand while ripping his heart out with chidori.

Same thing.

"Oh," Naruto snickered, his eyes determined in a way that the Uchiha knew he'd have to say _something _to get the idiot off his back so he could go home; it was _late, _"I think you do give a shit, Sasuke. Tell me why the hell you were following me."

Sasuke sighed as Naruto grew deadly serious. He wasn't going home anytime soon. When the blonde got like _this, _there were three things that were absolutely certain.

One, there was no stopping him. Even death, apparently.

Two, he would without hesitation resort to violence, and Sasuke didn't particularly warm to the idea of tasting some of those 'tricks' his team mate obviously had up his sleeve.

And three. The idiot was right. He needed to know. When Naruto needed something, he _needed _it. He kept needing it until it came to him, through violence – as seen in bringing Sasuke home – or through persuasion by way of whining incessantly.

Either way, Naruto needed to hear this, so he'd better spit something out so he could go home and eat his bloody dinner already.

As Naruto's stubbornness usually outweighed Sasuke's in this mode, they would most likely be here until tomorrow evening unless Sasuke made something plausible up, and fast.

According to their 'confession's to each other earlier, he'd be safest making something up that involved a surprise attack or something far away from the 'caring about you' area.

Here goes.

"I was following you because I needed to know if you got home safe."

_Shit!_

Why did he have to say the _truth?!_

"You…what?" Naruto looked more than a little stunned, and like his ramen had run away from its bowl.

Sasuke made his face blank, trying desperately to hide his alarm and annoyance at his slip up.

"I wanted to attack you in your shitty apartment and see if you learnt anything today."

"…sure." Naruto blinked slowly and averted his eyes, eyebrows creased.

Obviously the idiot wanted to forget about what he just heard. Or he was having a brain overload.

Either way, this little incident was going to be forgotten, even if it was the last thing he did.

--

_What, _Naruto thought, _the hell was that? _

He'd find out about that little startling piece of information, even if it was the last thing he did.


End file.
